Come on James, don't break the mood. It must look like a sad, dramatic anouncement.I used it only once. It wasn't popular.For the domain... it's a nice name for iGoogle... you open your browser and it says 'hello!'

This is indeed sad. I use Hello quite a bit with some close friends who all had it. It's a brilliant concept, and photo sharing isnt the same anywhere else. I was waiting for it to get integrated within the Picasa application, or with Google Talk – but it seems that this won't be the case, unless it springs back up in a new guise....I think part of the reason it never took off was it wasnt actually integrated with your google account – you had to have a new user name etc...

MX, I know about archive.org but I copied the page anyway for two reasons:- the more copies and diverse backups the bigger the chance the page will indeed by visible in the future- the Archive.org Wayback Machine, as great as their service is, often shows errors when accessing pages instead of the page, or shows pages where some parts are missing

Hello always seemed, at best, redundant to me--a more stream-lined way to email a link to a photo, or bunch of photos. Just integrating your Gmail/Gtalk contact list with Picasa Web would be as effective, if not more so (similar to the way Reader allows you to do such).

If anyone from Google is around, just a thought: it would be nice to opensource the client. It might not be of much use, but who knows. Some little pieces might be interesting for other opensource chat clients.

And just to put an end to abandonware. All software that are end-of-lifed should be released as GPL to tentatively give them a second life and so that we can run it on emulators in 20 years.

I'd hope the best features of Hello would be integrated into Google Talk or Picasa itself. I'd be willing to take using Picasa web as an intermediary, as long as it was clever and automatic. There's already an API for Picasa web, and like flickr, picasa is pretty speedy even for big photos. This could have been done if Google cared a little more, or maybe they're waiting on a third party to make something better.

Considering the future of the Google Talk desktop client is uncertain at best (vague promises of...something), who really knows where this clever little toy will go?

Now, is there an instant messenger like Hello for pictures, videos and music?

C'mon, Google, build me the future already. My programming skills aren't good enough yet to do it for myself :-(

Hello is something I use daily – there isn't anything like it in any messaging client available that I've seen.

I can coordinate a graphic design collaboration instantly. I can use it to help teach someone how to do something without having to render out a screen capture video (and upload it). I can pick up tips and tricks from people who serve as my mentors, and get instant feedback from clients; all of this without ever having to touch another program, wait on email, etc.

I can show pictures to Grandma, and see the latest nonsense from the family on the other side of the country. All without having to do customer support and teach people how to use it.

Hello gave me a spam-free, virus-free, porn-free platform to work, to play, and to stay in touch with friends and family. I'm devastated that it's going away and am writing Google to urge their reconsideration.

We might not be the most vocal piece of the internet, but there are MANY of us who use Hello every day. I urge every one of you who use it to tell Google how you use Hello – and ask them to reconsider this move.

Those who give negative or derogatory comments, obviously have not tried to enjoy and should refrain from being in the KNOW that not many used it.

I was able to send 1024x768 pic up to 600pieces per hour worldwide. Without uploading ftp etc SO VERY PRACTICAL . Try that with ANY other software and tell me you can instantly talk about the pictures and with saying look at page X or picture number xxx etc.

Especially the chat that links people with matching pop up pictures.It was so convenient to say LOOK AT THIS ONE and knowing on the otherside of the world your chat partner will have the same one picture between (ay 600) popping up on his/her screen.

I was very good also to compare and read in connection with SKYPE many pages documents and discuss them and than amend them in COLLANOS (an excellent OPEN SOURCE software, to share files & directories online).

GOOGLE if YOU read this!!!!!!!!!!

Tell us what is the reason behind all this? I hope HELLO will become either OPENSOURCE or resurface soon under a new name or linked to something within Google.

Don't tell me that SKETCHUP 6 will also one day simply be struck from the Internet Google map!!

A sincere Google Fan! (not so much today) snif :-(

For the few negative/sarcastic commentators above.You will be missing nothing anyway as visual creativity is never was and never will be your "Forte".

The HELLO.com homepage now says that the new shutdown date will be June 11th.

I for one used HELLO every day all day for the past 3+ years. I put together an open letter/petition to hopefully get Google to change their mind about shutting down this unique instant messenger service.

Hello is the finest image transfer program out there. Nothing matchesit. No email option lets me send 500 full size images at once and see which one my client is looking at in real time. Having it run in the background it plays nice with every program I know. Everyone who I tell about it stops using other IM's and transfer programs and starts using hello, because it simply is better. Unfortunately Hello has never gotten the promotion thatPicasa gets even though, in my opinion, it is the most important partof the Picasa family. Google talk or anything else out there just doesn't compare. I am willing to pay for this program! It is not your average IM program.

True it is not well known, but perhaps that is because Google never even put it on the google programs page. It was hard to find this program. A model told me about it and I sent some images to her over, it just to shut her up about it. Then I found out why she insisted I try it. Now it is an important part of my business. There is no equivalent program out there. I hope Google will rethink this and keep it going, or give it to me and I will . There are a lot of us that work with images everyday and will pay for this program!

For those that have posted something like; 'I haven't really used it, so don't really care'. Well that is it. If you had and do work with lots of image transfers, to non-geeks, you would be crying like those of us that made it a staple of our business.

Hello wasn't a instant messenger service it was a photo sharing program that was unlike any others and a lot faster to share photos. I for one think it was the best way to share pictures. The fact that it allowed you to communicate wasnt the main point of the program. Personally I only communicated within that chat to discuss the photos which were being shared. Google should reconsider their decision on ending such a great program.

Hello was a good program. The new service photophlow.com emulates several of Hello's features, but it is fully integrated with Flickr. It's in private beta now... but it's all web based and in the same spirit that Hello was. It just relies on Flickr for the photos instead of uploading them individually.

This thread is locked as it's old... but you can create a new thread in the forum.